Who says India is not an advanced country? Well, Indian high court has granted permission to a prisoner to use iPad in prison. Cool, eh?
Asif Balwa, one of the accused in 2G telecom scam, had requested court to allow him to carry an iPad into his cell. The prisoner wanted to use this gadget to read and prepare his defense against the 80,000 pages of chargesheet filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Considering it as a “special circumstance”, Delhi High Court has asked State and Tihar jail officials to examine the iDevice before it could be handed over to the accused.
As reported by TOI, the jail manual was designed in 1998 and amended in 2000 (almost 10 years before the launch of iPad devices), which obviously doesn’t allow prisoners to use iPad like devices in the prison. Of course, this is happening for the first time in the history that a court has approved someone to keep an iPad while spending time in the lock-up.
However, the HC Judge has ordered authorities to make sure that the device can’t be used for communication purpose. An excerpt from The Financial Express -
“You (Balwa’s counsel) hand over the iPad to the Law Officer tomorrow and he would get it checked that it cannot be tampered with and then submit a report in the court on Friday,” ordered the judge.
Looking at the progress in tech field, Delhi High Court’s decision is quite commendable and it will hopefully start a new trend in the judiciary system. Do share your thoughts on this decision.
Update (May 27, 2011) – Delhi Govt. and Tihar jail authorities have raised questions over the decision made by Delhi High Court.
It is not possible to ensure that the iPad will not be used as a communication device. Removal of some features from it does not ensure that other applications are rendered unusable.
Now, the prisoner will get a chance to choose an alternate device through which any type of communication is not possible.